Feeding device



' Dec'. 27, 1927.

F. x. MALdcsAY FEEDING DEVICE Filed May 21. 1923 Patented n... 27, 1921.

UNITED S ATES PATENT OFFICE. J

FRANCIS K. MALOCSAY, OF UPPER SADDLE RIVER, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TOINTER- NA TIONAL BANDING MACHINE COMPANY, A. CORPORATION 01 NEW YORK.

FEEDING DEVICE.

Application filed Kay 21,

This invention relates 'to those machines in which a series of articlesis adapted to be fed automatically therethrough from one position toanother. During the passage 8 through the machine the articles areadapted to be operatedupon by one or more mechanisms and are adaptedfinally to be discharged from the machine.

This invention has .for one of its objects 30 the provision of novel.means for moving a plurality of articles one at a time from one positionto another. Although these positions may be any desired positions suchas feeding and operating positions, the invention' is particularlyapplicable in connection with moving articles from ejecting position,that is, the final position after the last operation on the article, tothe discharging position, that is, the final position before thearticles are removed from the machine for packing or storing.

More particularly this invention is designed for use in connection withcombined cigar feeding and banding machines in which i the cigarsareadapted to be fed successively through the machine by automatic meansto a feeding position, from feeding position to banding position, wherea banding machine operates upon the cigars, then from banding positionto ejecting position. My invention provides novel means for operatingthe cigars from ejecting position to discharging position ready forpacking into boxes.

It is a further object of my invention to provide operatingl means asdescribed which will not strike t e cigars or other delicate articleswith a sharp, jarring jolt but will contact therewith gently so as notto damage the article.

It is a further object of my invention to provide operating means asdescribed which will move the cigars or other articles to finaldischarging sition in the same order and relative positions which theyoccupied 4 originally and without turning or twisting.

Other objects and advantages will a pear as the nature of theimprovements is etter understood, the invention consisting substantiallyin the novel arrangement and co-relation of instrumentalities hereinfully described and illustrated in the accompanying- 1928. Serial No.640,487.

drawings considered together or separately and then finally pointed outand specifically defined and indicated in the appended claims.

The disclosure made the basis of exemplifying the present inventionconcept suggests apractical embodiment thereof, but the invention is notto be restricted to the exact details of this disclosure, and thelatter, therefore, is to be understood from an illustrative, rather thana restrictive, standpoint. The inventive idea involved is capable ofreceiving a variety of mechanical expressions, one of which, for thepurposes of illustration, is shown' in the accompanyin drawing, in whichis shown afront view 0% a combined cigar feeding and banding machineembodying my invention, parts of themachine having been omitted and onlythose portions of the machine necessary to a descr1pt1on of my inventionhaving been shown.

The machine comprises 'a table 1 over which a plurality of cigars 2 orsimilar articles are adapted to be fed successively through severalpositions, in the present case, first to feeding position, then tobanding position shown at A where a banding machine operates upon thecigars, from the banding position to ejectin position shown at B andfinally to the disc .arging position indicated at O. The feedingmechanism all of the mechanism in advance of the banding position hasnot been shown, but for a suitable mechanism of this type reference maybe had to my copending application, Ser. N 0. 640,463, filed May 21,1923. If desired, the cigarsmay be fed to the banding position A in anysuitable manner, or even by hand, the manner of feeding not beingessential to the present invention. Assuming that the cigars have beenfed to the banding or operating position A and banded by a bandingmachine (not shown) or acted upon by some other machine, means areprovided in the shape of gripperfingers 10, 11 for gripping the bandedcigar and moving it to the ejecting position B. Further, means areprovided incthe shape of a finger or fin gers 12 adapted to engage thecigar in eject-"= ing position B and move it to discharging position 0preparatory to packing or other disposition of the article. Means areprovided for reciprocating these fingers between their respectiveoperating positions, that is, fingers 10, 11 between positions A and B,and fingers 12 between positions B and C.

Finger 1.0, which is shown as the upper finger adapted to engage theupper surface of the banded cigar, is carried at the upper end of aslide 15 operating in a gripper block 16 and normally held in effectiveposition to engage the cigar by means of a spring 17 engaging the slideat one end, and the gripper block at the other and normally tending todraw the finger downwardly. The gripper block is mounted upon a. mainshaft 20 upon which is fixed a hub 21, said hub having a depending fork22 engaging a shaft 23 fixed to the gripper block to hold said blockagainst rotation upon shaft 20. Fixed to the hub 21 is a link 25pivotally connected at its other end 26 to'the upper end of a link 27vpivoted at 28 in the main frame 29 of the machine, said link 27 having aroller 32 engaging a cam 30 mounted upon a shaft 31 adapted to be drivencontinuously from any suitable source of power. It is obvious,therefore, that link 25 will be reciprocated to reciprocate shaft 20 andhence the gripper block 16. Carried at one end of shaft 20 is a hubhaving rollers 34 operating on rails 33 on the main frame. Pivoted tothe hub 35 at 36 is a gripper bar 37 which has formed integrallytherewith finger 11. The finger 11 is positioned directly below thefinger 10 to cooperate therewith in gripping the banded cigar or articlewhich has been operated upon. Since shaft I 20 carries the gripper blockand its finger 10 and also the gripper bar 37 and its finger 11. thefingers 10 and 11 will be reciprocated together between positions A andB.

The gripping fingers 10 and 11 are adapted to be rendered effective toengage the article when the fingers are in position A, so that they maycarry the article to position B, and are adapted 'to be renderedineffective when in position B to release the article. In order torender the fingers 10 and 11 effective in position A, it is necessary tomove the finger-s together. Finger 10, as we have seen, is normallymoved to effective position by spring 17, and means are provided formoving finger l1 upwardly when said finger reaches position A. Thislatter means comprises a link 40 pivotally connected at 4:1 to thegripper bar, said link 40 being oonnccted at its lower end to a bellcrank 42, whose other end 43 is in engagement with a cam 44 mounted-upon shaft 31, said cam being so shaped and positioned as to cause link40 to move the gripper bar and hence finger 11 upwardly when the finger11 ap-' proaches position A. The cam 44 will operate to permit spring 45to draw the link 40 downwardly when the finger 11 reaches position B. Asthe gripper bar 37 descends, it engages the top of a link within thegripper block 16, said link being suitably geared by gearing (not shown)to the slide 15, so that when the gripper bar 37 is moved downwardly tomove finger 11 to ineffective position, finger 10 is moved upwardly alsoto ineffective position. It is thus apparent that fingers 10 and 11 aremoved simultaneously to effective position when in position A and toineffective position when in position B. The operation thus far will bereadily apparent. Shaft 20 is reciprocated to the right and left (in thedrawing), so that fingers 10 and 11 are carried back and forth betweenposition A and position B. The fingers 10 and 11 are rendered effectiveas they approach position A to engage the article in said position andthen carry the article to position B, where said fingers are renderedineffective to release the article,

that is, the fingers are spread apart out of engagement with saidarticle. This process is repeated continuously.

At the same time that one article is moved from banding or operatingposition A to ejecting position B, it is desired to move the article inejecting position B to discharging position C. For this purpose thefinger or fingers 12 are provided. Said finger 12 is mounted upon acarriage supported in a slot 61 in the gripper bar 37. If the finger 12were connected to the gripper bar 37 in such manner as to moveintegrally therewith, it is apparent that finger 12 would strike thecigar in ejecting position with the full force of the movement of thegripper bar to the right and thus cause possible injury to the cigar orother delicate article. To avoid such injury, thecarriage 60 is slidable in slot 61 in the gripper bar and is given a reciprocating movementindependent of the reciprocating movement of the gripper bar 37. Thismovement is somewhat slower and of smaller amplitude so as to impart amuch gentler movement to the cigar in ejecting position than wouldotherwise be possible. The amplitude of reciprocation of fingers 12 ismade considerably smaller than that of gripper bar 37, the slot 61permitting this difi'erence in movement in providing suificient lostmotion. The fingers 12 start their movement toward their right fromtheir extreme left position before ripper bar 37 and end their movementa out the same time, so that, sincethe amplitude of movement of'fingers12 is smaller and the time is greater, the rate of movement of fingers12 is therefore much slower than that of gripper bar 37 and the fingers10 and 11. For reciprocating the carriage there may be pivotallyconnected thereto at a link 71,

whose other end is pivotally connected to a 55 confined .to theparticular form of I give the hereinbefore described coaction ofelements. A spring 80 holds link-27 in engagement with its cam, andasimilarspring is provided for link 72.

' It will be understood that in the case of 1 cigars, these articles aregiven their final shape by packing in a box, said shape being usuallyrectangular in cross-section, and are then supplied to the bandingmachine row by row. After packing, adjacent cigars have a definiterelation to each other, and if this relation were disturbed, the shapeof the cigars would be altered and would no longer fit into the box inthe same manner. In many cases this would completely destroy theappearance of the cigars. From the foregoing description of the deviceit will be apparent that the cigars are moved from position A to B, andfrom B to C in exactly the same relation which they maintained be- 4fore being fed to these positions and without turning or twisting, sothat when the cigars are discharged in position C, they occupy the samerelative interlocking positions which they had before entering themachine. The slow, gentle movement of finger 1 2 guards against possibledisplacement of the cigars from their predetermined positions. 4

Throughout this specification I have described my invention inconnection with a cigar feeding and banding mechanism, but I wish itdistinctly understood that this was solely for illustrative purposes andto describe one practicalembodiment of my in- 40 ,vention, and that theinvention herein is capable of a wide variety of uses on other articles.Thus, for example, the device can be utilized in connection with candywrapping or banding machinery or generally with 4 any type of wrappingor banding machine wherein a plurality of similar articles are fed to abanding or wrapping machine and then discharged.

In accordance with the provisions of the 550 patent statute, I havedescribed the principle of my invention together with the apparatuswhich I now consider to represent a practical embodiment thereof, but Idesire it understood that my invention is not Pi ratus herein shown anddescribed, the same being'merely illustrative, and that, the inventioncan be carried out in other Ways without departing from the spirit of myan invention, and, therefore, I claim broadly the right to employ allequivalent instrumentalities coming within the scope of the appendedclaims, and by means of which the objects of my inve tion are. attained,and the new results accomp shed, as herein set forth,

as it is obvious that the particular embodiments herein shown anddescribed are only some of many thatcan be employed to attain theseobjects and accomplish these results.

1 Having described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure byLetters Patent is:

1. In a device of the character described, a 'means. for moving anarticle from one position to a second position, and means mounted uponsaid first means for moving first means thereof for moving an articlefrom the second position to a third position.

3. In a device of the character described,

means comprising gripping fingers for moving an article from oneposition to a second position, and means mounted upon said first meansfor moving an article from the second position to a third position.

4. In a ,device of the character described, means for moving an articlefrom one position to a second position, and means mounted upon saidfirst means for moving an article from the second position to a thirdposition, said first named means comprising grippingfingers adapted toengage thearticle and said second named means comprising a fingeradapted to engage the article.

5. In a device of the character described, means for moving an articlefrom one position to a second position, means mounted upon said firstmeans for moving an article from the second position to a thirdposition, means for reciprocating said first means between said firstand second positions, and means for reciprocating said second meansbetween said second and third positions.

i 6. In a device of the character described, means for moving an articlefrom one position to a second position, means mounted upon said firstmeans for moving an article from the second position to a thirdposition, means for reciprocating said first means between said firstand second positions, and

from the second position to a third position,

means for reciprocating said first means between said first and secondpositions, and means for reciprocating said second means between saidsecond and third positions substantially simultaneously with :said firstmeans. v

8. In a. device of the character described, means for moving an articlefrom one pos1- tion to a second position, means mounted upon said firstmeans for moving an article from the second position to a thirdposition, means for reciprocating said first means between said firstand second positions, and means for reciprocating said second meansbetween said second and third positions substantially simultaneouslywith said first means but at a diiierent rate than said first means.

9. In a device of the character described, means for moving an articlefrom one posi- .tion to a second position, means mounted upon said firstmeans for moving an article from the second position to a thirdposition, and means for reciprocating said first and second means but'thro ;1gh different ampli-' tudes.

10. In a device of the character described, meansefor moving an ar iclefrom one position to a second position, means mounted upon saidfirstmeans for moving an article from the second position to a thirdposition. means for reciprocating said first means, and means forreciprocating said second means substantially simultaneously with saidfirst .means but-at a different rate and through a difi erent amplitudethan said first means.

' 11. In adevice of the character described, a table, means operable toeffective position above said table to 'move an article on said carryingsaid lower finger, said second means comprising a finger carried by saidbar, and means for operating said bar andmeans comprising a fingercarried by said bar and means for operating said bar and its attachedfingers to ineffective position, and means actuated by'said bar whenmoving to ineffective position for rendering said upper fingerineffective.

14. In a device of the character described, a table, means for moving anarticle on said table from one position to a second position, means formoving an article on said table from the second position to a thirdposition, said first named means comp9sing upper and lower fingers, agrippefblock carrying said upper finger, a gripper bar carrying saidlower finger, said second means comprising a finger carried by said bar,means for operating said bar and its attached fingers to ineffectiveposition below said table and to effective position above said table,and means actuated by said bar by rendering said upper fingerineffective.

15. In a device of the character described, means for moving an articlefrom operating position to ejecting position, means for moving apreceding article from ejecting position to discharging position, andmeans for reciprocating said first two means through differentamplitudes in the same period of time: p

This specification signed this 7 day of 'May,192 a FRANCIS X. MALOCSAY.

